Testing Tubes

It has now been a couple of weeks testing the milele tubes in Kenya. We have lined up a good group of test riders through the sacco (bicycle taxi union) who have been eagerly riding the tubes for the past couple of weeks. The test riders come from a number of backgrounds and use their bicycles in different ways. We have some testers who use their bicycles solely to commute to and from work, sometimes carrying their wife on the rear passenger seat. A second group of test riders use their bicycles as boda boda (bicycle taxis) and are members of the local race team. Finally, we have test riders known as “long haulers” who use their bicycles to ferry heavy loads (around 150kg of maize, potatoes or firewood) long distances.

Before moving to Kitale, we knew that bicycles were used in a wide variety of ways here in Kenya but we did not fully understand the different preferences each of these groups would have.